Porto Cristo, Mallorca, Things to do and see, hotels, market

In 1260, a boat with Italian fishermen arrived at the coast during a storm. The fishermen carried a figure of Christ along with an image of the Virgin Mary holding a child in her arms. The promise of landing safe and sound was fulfilled and the name ‘Port of Christ’ was born. According to legend, the figure of Christ is the one venerated in the parish church of Manacor.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, Mallorca faced a brutal threat from the sea, the Ottoman empire and their allied corsairs. As a result of the many raids, a network of watchtowers was erected on the coastlines of the island to communicate whenever danger was near. In Porto Cristo, a watchtower  was erected in 1577, on the hill called Serrals dels Falcons. The tower was initially solely a watchtower, but later on a bronze cannon was installed turning it into a regular defense tower.

However, present day Porto Cristo was actually founded as an agricultural colony in 1888. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Spanish government came up with an initiative to create jobs and strengthen the middle class. The government sold plots of land for very discounted prices based on the requirement that the new landowners would irrigate and cultivate the lands and hire workers that could live there. These were called agricultural colonies and were the result of the Law of Population.

Under the Law of Population, nine agricultural colonies were founded in Mallorca in the years between 1874 and 1891, of which only four still exist; Colònia de Sant Pere, Colònia de Sant Jordi, Portocolom and Porto Cristo.

It was Jordi de San Simón and Maqués de Reguer who signed the deed of the lands belonging to the Sa Marineta property. The colony was to be named “Colònia de Nostra Senyora del Carme”. Along with the agricultural activities the harbor was also supposed to handle import and export of goods.

In 1896, speleologist Eduardo Martel discovered the Cuevas del Drach (Dragon Caves), along with the underground lake which belongs to the largest in Europe. The lake has been named after him.

In 1905, adventurer and businessman Pedro Caldentey Santandreu discovered the Cuevas del Hams during a quest to find onyx. A few years later he managed to keep the caves lit for 16 hours at the time using water turbines.

The two caves became some of the very first tourist attractions in Mallorca.

The colony of Carme continued to grow gradually in the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910 there were already 20 men, 22 women and 33 children living permanently in the colony. The primary activity was fishing, but soon the inhabitants of Manacor started to come here during the summer to bath on the beach.

In 1913, three nuns of the Sisterhood of Charity settled in the area. A few years later, in 1916, Llorenç Caldentey donated a plot for their convent in the Carrer de les Monges street. General vicar Mossèn Antoni Alcover blessed the convent the same year. The nuns assisted in maintaining the church, but were also highly dedicated to healthcare and teaching of children, and kept functioning up until the 1980’s. In 1992 their convent was transformed to residential suites for the sisters.

In the decade between 1920 and 1930 the fishing community had grown significantly and the need for a public school arose. Another important milestone of this decade was the opening of the first hotels such as Hotel Felip which is still in operation.

The Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936 and Franco’s Nationalist infantry, civil guard and volunteers. In an attempt to re-conquer Mallorca, the republicans of Barcelona assigned Captain Alberto Bayo the mission whom assembled a delegation of about 8,000 soldiers on the coast of Menorca ready to engage. The operation was neither agreed by the government in Madrid nor the Republican Ministry of War, it was an improvised operation set up by the Government of Catalonia.

Bayo and his militia disembarked on the coastline between Punta de n’Amer and Porto Cristo in the morning of August 16th, occupying a stretch of 7 kilometers. The stretch was later named Porto Rojo. Bayo’s forces managed to advance about 12 kilometers inland but was so baffled by their own success that they needed to slow down and organize which allowed the Falangists to plan a counter attack. On August 31st, the republicans met a growing resistance forcing them to re-organize and prepared to attack Manacor.

Moreover, the Falangists soon received reinforcements from Italy. It was the fascist Arconovaldo Bonaccorsi, known as “Count Rossi” and Luigi Cirelli, who were in command of a squadron of fighters and bombers sent to Mallorca. The air forces started bombing forcing Bayo’s militia to withdraw towards the coast. On September 2nd, the republican’s ammunition depot was bombed and destroyed on the headland of Punta de n’Amer.

The republican forces soon ran out of medical services, field hospitals and supplies, and were unable to cope with the counteroffensive of Falangist and Italian forces. On the night of September 4th, the republican forces was ordered to withdraw and leave the island.

During the 1950’s and 60’s, the great tourism boom happened in Mallorca, sending thousands of people to the island for holidays. Porto Cristo was one of the first destinations to receive holidaymakers, and in the 90’s  the town had grown considerably and consolidated itself as a well-known European tourist destination. Today, tourism is the main source of income in Porto Cristo.